Resolution
by Just Slightly Obsessed
Summary: Perdido Beach is nearly contented. Sam Temple's problems have nearly all been solved. But with the thought of 'the Damned' constantly at the back of his mind, how can anything be perfect again? T for language.


**Hellooo there! OK, this is a two/three shot piece - originally one-short, but it got a bit too long - about the very end of the whole drama thing. Previous events are mentioned but not really expanded upon so imagine what you will. And it's pretty unrealistic, and a few things may disappoint some point, but I felt like writing this anyway. And there's a brief use of strong language - sorry. :)**

**Hope you enjoy.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do thus bequeath everything that thou doth recogniseth within this tale to the great Michael Grant and his genius mind.**

* * *

It was astonishing how much quieter the FAYZ was now.

Now the kids had started to work with the council, not against. Now the farming had started, properly. Now the Gaiaphage was dead, and no longer pulling at the mind of the Healer.

Now that _they_ had disappeared from sight, and mind, apparently for good.

Sam whistled as he walked to the town centre. Kids greeting him as they passed, cycling or walking, taking prees to the daycare, heading out to the fields or their other occupations. He grinned back, more ready to be happy than he had been in over a year. It was OK now. It was all OK.

He'd resigned from his role as the mayor, a post which had been filled by nobody, and had joined the town council. A few other people had joined – Lana had replaced Howard, who'd resigned after Orc had been taken down in the battle. And Mary, eternally patient and tolerant, had been removed from the daycare rota and had replaced her brother on the council. John had found himself a more useful job, as Dahra's assistant in finding new medicines from the plants they had to work with.

As Sam approached the town hall, he saw Astrid coming across the square. He stopped to wait for her, smiling and wrapping an arm around her as she got close enough. "Hey."

"Hey yourself. Get enough sleep?"

"Yup." His mood wavered slightly as he smoothed down Astrid's slight bed-head. They'd come to an agreement about their relationship. Sam had moved out, helping to control his urges for Astrid. That had been a real annoyance at first, but he'd kinda got used to it, and, now that they were sixteen, Astrid had promised to marry him as soon as there was the opportunity, ie, when the FAYZ ended. Sam wasn't sure how soon that would be, but there had been rumours of the wall thinning in places, and that somewhere, near the hotel, or so it was said, you could almost see through to 'the other side'.

"How's LP?" he asked as they made their way up the stairs of the town hall. Astrid had finally lost her overly-protective streak, and had taken to dropping Little Pete off at the daycare most days.

"Fine," she replied, hesitating.

"What?"

"Well... it's almost like he's started responding a bit more. I mean, since we – you and Lana – got rid of the Darkness, he's... well, when I hugged him goodbye, I could have sworn he squeezed my hand."

Sam stared at her. "Really?"

"Uh huh." She shook her head. "I guess we'll never find out what it was."

He nodded, again feeling slightly annoyed. Though he hadn't seen his brother in three months, and was glad of it, Sam was sure he knew more about the Darkness than anyone in Perdido Beach did. He'd spoken to it, after all, and tried to kill it several times. And last time Sam had seen him, the former Coates' leader had been in the middle of the biggest battle known to FAYZ-kind with the Darkness' pet psychopath.

That battle had been the worst that Sam had ever seen. So many kids had been injured that Lana had been working for weeks afterwards, and several more kids had been killed. Many buildings had been torn down, particularly in the east of the town, where the battle between Sam's brother and the Whip-hand had been raging. Sam had tried to avoid that, hoping the two arch nemeses would incapacitate each other. He'd never found out who had won that battle; waging a three way war was hard at the best of times, even worse when there were mutants involved. When he'd finally headed over to that part of town, the pair of them were gone, and so was the girl.

They reached the council room. Dekka, Mary, Edilio and Lana were already there, chatting amiably, and they waved as Sam and Astrid entered. They both looked healthier; Lana was no longer being controlled by the Gaiaphage and everyone was eating better now that farming, hunting and fishing had begun in organised routines.

"Hey guys. You're early," Sam commented as he sat down in his assigned place. Astrid sat down next to him.

"You're late, actually. As is Albert," Edilio grinned. It was true that the council was pretty lax about the timings of their meetings, but seeing as most of them were compiled of simpler issues such as ownership, it didn't matter so much. Possession had been nine tenths of the law, pre-FAYZ, and Sam was starting to realise just how many different scenarios there could be.

"Ah, well. It's not like anything especially important is going to happen."

"Actually, I reckon today's meeting is going to be pretty important," Astrid spoke up. The others looked at her.

"Why? What's going on?"

"Well..." Astrid began, but before she could finish her sentence, Albert walked into the room.

"Didn't start without me, did you?" he asked, taking a seat.

"No. I was just saying that..." She sighed, resting her head on her hands. "We need to talk about... about _those_ three."

Sam was 99.9 percent sure he knew what she was talking about. "My brother and his cohorts," he confirmed.

Astrid nodded wearily. It was strange, but people had taken to avoiding saying the names. After some of the stuff Sam had seen them do, especially towards the end, he wasn't surprised. It wasn't exactly a Voldemort-scale taboo, but it was pretty bad.

"So, those three," Edilio began breezily, "hereafter known as the Damned – what about them?"

Astrid gave a small smile at his attempt at humour. "Where are they? They've been gone for three months. We've had no trace, none at all, and we all know it's unlike any of them to leave without a fight."

"From what I've seen of the east side of town, there was a pretty big fight," Dekka said.

"Agreed. But who won? And why aren't they trying to take over, or kill everybody, or whatever it is they'd try to do?"

"Maybe they were both killed," Mary suggested bitterly. "And that witch took their bodies away to throw in a lake of burning acid before jumping in herself."

"I doubt it. Suicide doesn't feel like her style."

Dekka snorted. "And who would she be mourning anyway? The psychopath?"

Sam's good mood had gone completely out of the window. He didn't really know what he'd hoped had happened to 'the Damned'. He guess he couldn't say he wished his brother was dead, but he didn't really want him alive either. And the girl, she'd been the best of them, but even she had done some pretty bad stuff. As for the psycho, Sam knew what he felt there. He wanted the Whip-hand dead with a burning passion.

"Look, guys, the point is that we can't keep this society up without knowing about them. Sure, it's working for the moment, but once people realise that nobody knows where the Damned are, or what they're doing, the fear's going to take over again and we'll be back to the Human Crew. We have to tell them something."

"So what are you suggesting?" Sam asked Astrid. "That we go up to Coates and look for them?"

"If any one of them is still alive, and that's where they're hiding out, going in there is nearly suicide," Mary said.

"We've got powers, and guns," said Dekka. "We can handle it."

"But so have they. And a whip, for flip's sake."

"But not all at the same time," Albert reasoned. "There's a pattern here. Neither Drake nor Caine won the battle in Perdido Beach. It might have moved, but it's been pretty quiet. I'm assuming we're ruling out the possibility of an alliance, because it's obvious they hate each other, so we must assume that either they're preparing themselves for a huge battle, or one of them is dead. If the latter is the case, either Caine and Diana are alive, or Drake is alive. There is the possibility that Caine is alive alone, but from what you guys saw by the mine, it's probable that he killed himself if Diana's dead. If Drake won, Diana is dead too, cos he wouldn't have hesitated to hunt her down. So the situation we face is: 1) Caine and Diana together, 2) Drake alone, or 3) none of them are dead, and all hell is about to break loose."

Silence followed Albert's deduction. It was typical of him not to be afraid of memories, to work it out with logic and common sense, but Sam couldn't say he liked the conclusions. Every option had at least one grudge-holding maniac running at him, and Sam wasn't sure which one he liked best.

"There is another option," Lana said quietly, from where she was standing near the window.

"What's that?"

"That Caine and Diana are walking through the town square very slowly and heading this way."

Sam was up in an instant and joining Lana at the window. Sure enough, two dark-haired figures were making their way towards the council hall, and a large crowd was gathering around them. He couldn't make out any details through the filthy glass, but they did look vaguely familiar...

"Oh, crap."

He left the room at a fast pace. The others were following him, but he didn't care right now. He didn't know what his brother was up to, but it was never good. Ever.

He got outside, and slowed his pace as he walked down the steps, staring at the scene before him. Astrid came to stand beside him, and Edilio on his other side. His insides were aching with fear, but he could feel the power of the people standing behind him. That gave him strength. He wasn't alone this time.

The two of them were still in the middle of the square, walking so slowly it hardly seemed like they were walking at all. Diana raised her head as she approached Sam. Her eyes were still strong and dark, but her face was gaunt and it looked like she'd been crying. It was shocking to see her so different, so dressed-down and open. With Diana, it has always been like you were trying to talk to an enigma, some sort of code which changed so fast you didn't know who you were talking to. But she still kept some of her dignity, and she was clearly the stronger one.

While the boy next to her bore no resemblance to Caine whatsoever. His head was down, his dark hair hiding his face. He walked with a limp, and the tattered, dirty white shirt he wore barely covered the red slashes across his back. He'd once been tall and muscular; hints of the strength could still be seen within his shoulders, but he was underfed, and his slouch made him seem hardly taller than Diana.

They walked, fingers intertwined, until they were nearly on the steps. The crowd that had gathered former a semi-circle around them. Sam could tell from their faces that they weren't sure whether to be scared or angry. He was in the same position himself.

"Sam," Diana began, but her voice cracked. Fresh tears welled in her eyes. "Sam, I... We..." She took a deep breath and started again. "Sam, Astrid, Edilio, people of the council. We – Caine and I – are here to offer our surrender."

"Yeah right!" some kid shouted from the crowd. It sounded like Brianna.

"We were wrong," Diana continued, her eyes only on Sam. "Everything we did... all the deaths, the panic, the torture. But we will die if you don't accept our surrender." Another deep breath. "We will obey any orders given to us. We will do whatever penance or punishment you deem necessary for our actions. We will keep strictly to ourselves, not talk to anyone, not do anything you ask us not to. You will essentially have control over us. In return, we just ask for food and water. And access to the Healer."

Sam could feel all eyes on him. He hated it. Why was it up to him? Why?

"Please, Sam," Diana whispered.

There was a pause. Then-

"Is Drake dead, Caine?" Sam asked.

Diana opened her mouth to speak, but Sam shook his head. She glanced over at Caine, who appeared to be breathing heavily, and squeezed his hand.

"Caine?"

Caine looked up at his brother, and Sam felt like he had been pushed into a bucket of icy water. He was pale, so pale the veins on his temples seemed too bright a blue to be genuine. His cheekbones stood out from his face, and his dark eyes were bloodshot and filled with a rage so fierce it was almost painful to look at him. What had happened to the easily handsome, charming kid that had taken over Perdido Beach two years before, Sam had no idea.

"Yeah," he whispered. "I killed the bastard."

Sam breathed a sigh of relief, and realised that most of Perdido Beach had sighed along with him. It was horrible, _horrible, _to think that so many people could hate one kid enough to want him dead, but... Drake Merwin was dead. And that made him feel happier again.

"And do you agree? With what Diana was saying?"

"I-I can't... I won't leave... she... I..." Caine had started shaking. Diana put her free hand on his other cheek and turned him to face her.

"Caine," she said, calmly. "Do you surrender to Sam and the council of Perdido Beach?"

He bit his lip, and nodded slowly. "Yeah." He turned to face Sam again. "Yeah, I surrender."

Sam didn't know what to do, or say. He looked nervously at Astrid, who stepped up.

"Come inside. We'll discuss it there. And Caine, if you can't keep your hands behind your back, we'll get Edilio to tie them there."

With this, she turned and headed inside. Sam waited for Caine and Diana to move past him, fingers still interlocked. Caine stared blankly ahead, but Diana looked at him with some strange emotion he'd never seen in her eyes before.

Was it gratitude?


End file.
